Tag Archives: sordid dystopia

The recent capture of the madman Avent Martell not only serve reinforce the perceivable ineptude of the crew and captain, but dig up a whole new issue all the same. It seems Martell was able to get into the back rooms, which house the private stock carried by the Poulin Trading Company.

The crew find themselves exploring a room full of ornate firearms of mysterious make and model, a room full of bags of potent white powder, a room full of strange shells and casings, and the men who demand they be kept secret–representatives of the company who take their job very, very seriously.

In Port Victoire, a popular manufactoring and port town in eastern Vontier, a mass of sailors collect to sign on to the soon to depart Duquetimme, a ship owned and operated by the Poulin Trading Company.

These prospective sailors come seeking fortune and adventure, and the voyage of the Duquetimme promises all of that and more. The task: sail to the center of the ocean, a point between all four seafaring nations, where Gilbert Poulin II, owner of the PTC, theorizes the existence of a fabled island. His goal: establish a Hub in the name of the Poulin Trading Company, better connecting his company to the rest of the world before anyone others have the chance.

The sailors quickly discover the peculiarities of their task, however. Firstly, their pay is far too steep for a routine exploratory voyage–their contract promising more currency than an average laborer makes in ten years. And secondly, collecting the crew was remarkably rushed, to the point that some of the crew may or may not suffer from total ineptude . . .

Three young acolytes of the Paladins of Battle, zealous disciples of Ezekiel, have finished their four-and-a-half month grueling training and brain-washing period and are being dispatched on their first mission.

They are tasked with finding and rooting out a “corruption of the soul” in the small village of Kassier. They find that the populace has fallen under an illness, and a strangely dressed merchant who has a persuasive tongue.

What the three don’t realize is that they have entered the domain of something truly horrible.Continue reading »

Today we have something very special for you, listeners, the first playtest session of Nate’s original system and setting Sordid Dystopia!

We begin in the small, seemingly normal town of Essenvie, with the King’s tax man en route for the first time in years.

In this town, the resident’s greatest enemy is “The Man Up in the Tax Man’s Cart,” and there is a great deal of this. This session, in addition to its entertainment factor, is a pristine example for you GMs on how players can succeed in derailing plots, and how to compensate.